Heroin Death Results In Charges Against 6

An Orlando Man's Girlfriend, Her Daughter And Four Others Face Charges. He Died Dec. 12.

December 24, 1998|By Susan Clary of The Sentinel Staff

Six people face charges of possessing and distributing heroin in a case involving the overdose death of an Orlando man.

Charles Hensley, 34, died Dec. 12 at his home on Cozy Cove Lane after injecting himself with heroin bought by his girlfriend and her daughter, court records show.

FOR THE RECORD - ****************** CORRECTION PUBLISHED DECEMBER 25, 1998 *******************Marilyn Vazquez, 28, of Kissimmee, was released to a halfway house Wednesday after a federal court appearance in a heroin distribution case. Because of an editing error, a story in Thursday's Local & State section stated that another suspect had been sent to the halfway house.*****************************************************************************

FOR THE RECORD - ****************** CORRECTION PUBLISHED DECEMBER 25, 1998 *******************Marilyn Vazquez, 28, of Kissimmee, was released to a halfway house Wednesday after a federal court appearance in a heroin distribution case. Because of an editing error, a story in Thursday's Local & State section stated that another suspect had been sent to the halfway house. *****************************************************************************

Hensley's girlfriend, Paula Discolo, 46, and her daughter Marilyn Giguere, 27, also injected heroin that morning and were rushed to the hospital with overdoses. Both survived. Both have been charged.

Discolo was arrested at home Wednesday and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Karla Spaulding. She was being held without bail pending a hearing next week.

After Hensley's death, the case was assigned to the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Heroin Task Force, created to combat the region's heroin epidemic.

According to a 10-page criminal complaint by agent Burlin Webster of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Discolo and Giguere met Victor Ortiz, 25, in Osceola County on Dec. 11 at a pay phone near Buenaventura Boulevard and Boggy Creek Road. They told him they wanted to buy heroin.

Ortiz took them to the Silver Oaks Apartments in Kissimmee where they met Marilyn Vazquez, 28. She introduced the women to two men who were staying with her: Saturnino Velez, 36, and Anselmo Santiago, 20.

Velez and Santiago left the apartment with $100 and returned with 12 ``hits'' of heroin for the women they bought from Israel Santiago, 24, who is no relation to Anselmo Santiago, according to Webster's complaint. The women injected some of the heroin and then returned home, where they shared it with Hensley.

After she overdosed, Giguere told authorities what had happened and offered to lead them to the others. Velez helped authorities find Israel Santiago.

Vazquez and Velez appeared before Spaulding late Wednesday. Velez, who tested positive for opiates and amphetamines, was ordered held without bail until a future hearing.

Velez, who has no criminal history and no current drug addiction, was released by Spaulding to a halfway house provided she signed a $50,000 unsecured bond.

Ortiz, Anselmo Santiago and Israel Santiago already were in jail. Giguere had not been arrested by late Wednesday.